Archives for December, 2010

This is a powerful portrayal of how we have used Google to access information, summarized for 2010 in less than three minutes. I simply had to share this with ScienceBlogs readers, with acknowledgement from Mashable. From the Mashable article: “In terms of news searches, Haiti proved the most popular, followed by Turkish sports club Besiktas,…

In one of my favorite letters of all time, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Maria Cosway about a debate between his head and his heart. If you are not familiar, I encourage you to read the letter written by one of the great masters of the power of the word. In the spirit of this debate,…

Google announced yesterday that you can now access three million books from 4,000 publishers from their ebookstore. These eBooks can be read on an android, iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Nook and Sony bookreaders and – almost forgot – a computer. With this announcement, I wanted to share with ScienceBlogs readers an Op-Ed I published this Spring…

Anyone wanting to learn about Darwin’s theories would do well to read his original letters. Thanks to an amazing resource from the University of Cambridge, the “Darwin Correspondence Project”, you can access a treasure trove of his letters in an interactive timeline. This resource addresses: Darwin and Science Darwin and Religion Darwin and Ecology Darwin…

As a member of the American Diabetes Association, I attended the ADA annual meeting several years ago and heard an inspiring lecture by Prof. Gene Barrett (Univerrsity of Virginia). Dr. Barrett delivered that year’s President’s Address titled: “The Sheep, the Ostrich, the Ant, Diabetes, and the Tragedy of the Common”. {You can read the published…

With the virtues that online social networking may offer for education, a thought for today is to consider a strategy to give yourself a respite from the frantic, nonstop pace of Facebook, Twitter, Digg and any other virtual world that sucks you in. A curious new software (counterculture?) called “Anti-Social*” has emerged that offers the…

As a scientist and educator, I had never planned on playing the role of a science journalist. That role was approached with caution step by step, on mental tiptoe, first with publishing Letters to the Editor in The New York Times, progressing inexorably towards Op-Eds and Blogs, propelled by a joy of writing and the…

Today’s report of Arsenic-eating bacteria published in Science could have some unanticipated benefits: clean up and bioremediation after an oil spill. I may be off base, but here’s my reasoning. Caveat: these newly discovered bacteria may not be useful in reducing arsenic levels after an oil spill if they are “fastidious” or too finicky to…

Thanks, “We, Beasties” for your article on cholera. As you pointed out: As cholera rampages through Haiti, some epidemiologists are warning that the country could face more than half a million cases over the coming year. Yet tracking and treating the disease is proving increasingly difficult as civil unrest grips the county. While oral vaccines…

ejbSF’s Flickr photostream My office is often a flurry of activity with students coming with a wide array of questions. Whenever possible, I respond to their questions via email. Last Fall, one of our students expressed dismay when I told her I would respond to her request with an email. “Email, Dr. Toney? That’s so…